Welcome to the Exceptional Nurse Blog! I am Donna Maheady, EdD, ARNP, founder of www.ExceptionalNurse.com, the nonprofit resource committed to inclusion of people with disabilities in nursing. We facilitate inclusion of students with disabilities in nursing education programs and foster resilience and continued practice for nurses who are, or become, disabled. We celebrate abilities, share resources and examples of nurses with disabilities who work with and without accommodations.

Subscribe To

Sunday, January 31, 2016

Nurses with disabilities often ask, "how do I ask for reasonable accommodation"?The Department of Labor's Job Accommodation Network (JAN) suggests the following:"According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency charged with enforcing the ADA, an accommodation request does not have to be in writing. However, the EEOC suggests that individuals with disabilities might find it useful to document accommodation requests in the event there is a dispute about whether or when they requested accommodation. One way to document an accommodation request is to make a written request."

The following is an example of what can be included in an accommodation request letter. It is not intended to be legal advice:

Date of Letter

Your name

Your address

Employer’s name

Employer’s address

Dear (e.g., Supervisor, Manager, Human Resources, Personnel):

Content to consider in body of letter:

Identify yourself as a person with a disability.

State that you are requesting accommodations under the ADA (or the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 if you are a federal employee).

Identify your specific problematic job tasks.

Identify your accommodation ideas.

Request your employer’s accommodation ideas.

Refer to attached medical documentation if appropriate.*Ask that your employer to respond to your request in a reasonable amount of time.

Sincerely,

Your signature

Your printed name

Cc: To appropriate individuals

*You may want to attach medical information to your letter to help establish that you are a person with a disability and to document the need for accommodation.